Hola Familia!

How are you guys? Sounds like you had a busy week back in California. You are so right about visiting the cabin Mom. You have no idea how many times I have just dreamed of going up to the cabin with the family and hiking, and laying by the pool and reading books for the weekend. Ah. How things have changed huh? We will have to take a little get away to Stonehaven when I get back. I died laughing about the soap in the dishwasher situation. Summer WOULD record that. I'm so proud. Someone has to be the family documentor now that I'm gone. Haha.

This week was a crazy roller coaster! I'm sure everyone is wondering how the chocolate fast is going. I´m going to get to that...don´t you worry.

Wednesday was probably the best day of my whole mission so far. It was incredible! The day started out really rough and I was just really sad, and couldn't figure out why. I was on my knees for a good 15 minutes during my personal study cause I was just feeling so insufficient and like I wasn't doing anything to help my companion because the language was so tough. I was praying for experiences to be humbled so I could better understand missionary work, and was pleading for some sort of sign of what my purpose was, and why I was having such a tough time.

Well...I can promise you all that the Lord answers prayers in the ways we never expect. For our companion study on Wednesday morning Hermana Chavez decided to read with me a talk called the "Consecrated Missionary". I´m sure you have heard of it. If you haven't....everyone should read it. That talk changed my life. And we only had time to study the first page. I realized what my problems were, and fixed them immediately. The rest of the day was amazing! We went and visited a woman named Santuza who has been meeting with missionaries on and off for 2 years.  After we shared our message we felt that she needed to pray with us...so the three of us knelt down...in the middle of her hair-cutting store, and she prayed.  When the prayer was over we were all in tears and she told us she wanted to be BAPTIZED! We were so excited! When we left her store we started screaming. Then...we thought it would be a good idea to get some chocolate to celebrate....oh no.

Wednesday night we went and visited our investigator Ramiro. He is hilarious. Remember the one is like Kristian? Well...normally when we teach him he sits in silence and nods every now and then...but Hermana Chavez said she felt prompted to have me teach and she would just come in every now and then and bear her testimony. And it definitely was a prompting from the Lord because whoever taught that night was NOT me. My Spanish was nearly perfect, and I had so many things come to my mind that I never had an issue of what I needed to say. As soon as I started talking he wouldn't shut up. He had tons of questions and when we gave him a Book of Mormon he was stoked about it. We left that appointment screaming too. It was such a great day. THEN....are you ready for what happened next? I broke my foot! hahaha. just kidding...that wasn't funny. But I tripped, ...THAT was funny. And my companion did too...and I couldn't stop laughing. It was horrible cause she kept saying how terrible the pain was and I was just laughing at her.

Okay...next thing. We walked back to our apartment and guess who was there? My companion from the MTC Hermana Schoppmann...! HAHAHA She's our new companion. My poor Hermana Chavez has been out for 4 months and shes training two North Americans.  She's the greatest person ever though. We have honestly become best friends...I love her so much. I told her she needs to marry Chandler so we can be real sisters...she's not really sure about that. But we just sit in bed and sing and laugh together. It has been really tough having another companion...especially because I'm being trained and Hermana Schoppmann knows no Spanish...and we have kind of had to start over with the training instead of moving forward...but I asked to be humbled and the Lord is delivering. Haha.

Last thing...Friday morning we got a phone call from Santuza saying she didn't want to be baptized anymore. After she called she dropped off the face of planet and we spent the rest of the day walking around trying to find her. (Classic stalker missionaries) Then we were so depressed that we bought chocolate. She didn't end up getting baptized because her husband didn't want her too. It was rough. But...we are going to meet with her again this week and try and see what we can do to help her have a stronger desire to read the Book of Mormon because she told us that she wasn't reading it, and we are almost sure that's why she didn't have the faith to get baptized.

I am having the time of my life. And I think I still have a parasite.

I bought a new backpack for 12 soles...and It's my favorite thing in the world. Also...even though it looks like I have a double chin in the picture I sent you I don't...I promise I haven't gained THAT much weight.

Also...I know I´m maturing cause guess who loves to do the dishes now. ME! I also love hand washing clothes...as you can tell from my excitement in the picture of me hanging up my companions sheets on the clothes line. Haha

My spanish is coming poco a poco...but the Patriarch said I'm getting better and I understand most people now. WOO! Love you all!

Talk to you next week!
Sorry this email is so long!
Hermana Carli